Bunta Marui
Background Bunta Marui (丸井 ブン太, Marui Bunta) is a 3rd year student on the Rikkai team. Marui is a volley specialist and his expertise in the area far exceeds one of the field's best volleyers, Jirō Akutagawa. In fact, he was the one who inspired Jirō's tennis. He is a doubles player and typically partners with Jackal, but partnered with Niō for a match in the Nationals. He also played in the Newcomer's Tournament in his first year. He is also shown to be a very capable singles player like every other member of the Rikkai Dai team. Despite wearing arm weights during matches, he has stamina issues, so he overdoses on sugar by always chewing bubblegum, even when he plays tennis. He also preps for each match by eating an entire cake. Appearance Marui has bright red-pink hair and loves chewing bubble gum. He also appears short for his age. He is significantly shorter than most of the other 3rd Year Middle Schoolers in the series and he is the shortest member of Rikkai Dai.and in the anime is depicted to have pink/purple eyes. Personality Marui finishing Ramen.png Marui eating Ramen.png Marui is known to have a sweet tooth. He enjoys eating cakes and sweets but most of all, Marui loves bubblegum. He is alwajys seen chewing gum and blowing bubbles even whilst playing matches. He has a tendency to place a burden of tasks that he appears to set for himself on close friend Jackal. Marui hangs around with Jackal and the two appear to be best friends. As shown in the Another Story OVA, Marui and Jackal would go places together after school and tend Marui accompanies Jackal on watching over the wild Kirihara Akaya. Marui and Jackal after practicing.png|Marui and Jackal during practice. Marui is shown to be quite arrogant in his abilities not unlike most players in the series. He is proud of his volleying skill and is aware he is perhaps the best middle schooler that focuses their play on volleys. He calls himself a genius and his moves genius-like after performing his special shots that stun spectators such as Tightrope Walking. History One Year Prior to the Storyline Marui began Rikkai Dai along with the rest of the Rikkai 3rd Years as 1st years. Two Years Prior to the Storyline Marui and Jackal befriend Kirihara Akaya after Kirihara challenges the 3 Monsters. Districts Marui and Jirou.jpg|Marui and Akutagawa. The Volley specialists. Marui in action.jpg|Marui during the same time as when the District Tournaments took place. It is shown that during this time, Marui is challenged to a match by Akutagawa Jirou after the latter visits him in his school ground. However, their matches ends after Jirou falls asleep in the middle of the game, shocking both Marui and the rest of the Rikkaidai team. Prefecturals Marui and Rikkai effortlessly won the Kanagawa prefecture tournament. Regionals Marui and Rikkai cruise through to the finals of the Kanto Regional Tournament with ease. Nationals Marui, Jackal and Yagyuu explaing to Kirihara.jpg Marui in the Nationals.jpg Rikkai Dai go to the Nationals as underdogs after a shock defeat to Seigaku in their Regional final however due to the return of their captain Yukimura Seiichi, they expect nothing short of a 3rd Consecutive championship. U-17 Camp Marui and all of the Rikkai Dai regulars Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichiro, Yanagi Renji, Yagyuu Hiroshi, Niou Masaharu, Jackal Kuwahara and Kirihara Akaya receive invitations to the All-Japan Juniors Training Camp. He plays against an unknown high schooler that is awed by Marui's Tight Rope Walking technique. Marui and all of the 50 middle schoolers who were there at the time were able to catch a ball from the helicopter in a game where those without a ball must go home. The Mental Coach arrives and declares that all middle schoolers must pair up. He then coldly says that the person they have paired with, is their opponent in a tie-break game and the loser must go home. Marui as expected paired with best friend Jackal. Marui is victorious after a tight game winning just 10-8. He and the rest of the Rikkaidai regulars watch the match between Yanagi and Kirihara. Jackal is believed to be sent home while Marui stays and defeats his next high school opponent in the Player Shuffle and reaches the 6th Court. While Jackal goes to the mountains with all the other Middle school losers and comes back to the camp as a member of the 2nd Court. Marui is present with all the other members of the camp at the main court to see the return of the Top 10 and are also present when it is revealed that Middle Schoolers have replaced No.s 11-19. Marui later bumps into Kite Eishiro when looking to have quick practice session. Tennis Record Playing Style and Techniques Marui is widely viewed as the best Serve and Volley style player in Middle School Japan. His wide range of volleys always seem to shock both opponents and spectators. Tightrope Walking (Tsunawatari) ' : A volley where the ball hits the cord and neatly rolls along the top of the net away from the opponent before dropping to the ground. : 'Iron Pole Strike (Tetchuu-Ate) : A similar volley to Tightrope Walking, where the ball bounces off the iron pole at the end of the net. : 'Temporal Difference Hell (Jikansa Jigoku) ' : A fake smash where he changes the angle of collision at the last second, to make it impossible to predict its direction. He allows the ball to go past his head, and swings his arm backwards up into the air behind and returns the ball making the course nearly impossible to predict. : 'Super Rising ' : Marui returns the ball before it bounces to the highest point. As a result, his opponents have less time to react. He used this move against Takeshi Momoshiro ´s Dunk Smash. Trivia *He is the shortest member of Rikkaidai, even though he's the oldest. *He placed 11th in the third character polls, and 18th in the fourth. *In Musical Tennis no Ōjisama, Marui is played by Kiriyama Renn and currently by Akaba Mio. Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Rikkaidai Tennis Club Member Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:U-17 Camp Category:Serve and Volley Category:Right-Handed Category:Kanto Players Category:Kanagawa Players